Talking science is based on the premise of being serious and dignified. Still, both teachers and students use humour when they communicate. However, little is known about the mechanisms of how learning science is constituted when teachers and students are using spontaneous humour in science classroom activities. In this study, we acknowledge this gap. We have analysed video data using practical epistemology analysis (PEA) from two different contexts in physics education, a physics classroom in grade 9 and a group of undergraduate students learning basic mechanics together. The findings showed that spontaneous humour, such as absurdities, supported the learning process in two ways: (1) orienting talk and action towards the scientific purposes of the assignments and (2) sorting out what scientific content and norms were/were not of relevance in the situation. The results illustrate how the participants made jokes to clarify how reasoning and actions tallied with the task at hand. These humorous situations positively affected students’ ability to act intentionally towards the aim of the activity, and the results show that this way of joking can have positive consequences for student learning. Therefore, humour ought to be viewed as a significant resource for learning in the science classroom. Doing science can, like any other activity, be a humorous endeavour in itself, without cartoons or extravagant shows.

Introduction: Within the technology education research field, aesthetics has primarily been treated as either related to artifacts, design processes and innovation, or as related to students’ enjoyment, appreciation, and participation in technology and technology education. This study focuses on the role of aesthetics in technology learning more specifically the learning of programming. Previous research has pointed to aesthetics as important for the learning of programming, e.g., that programming activities in higher education typically involve experiences of frustration. While previous research is primarily based on student reports, there is a need for further exploration of processes of learning to program. The aim of this study is to explore the role of aesthetics for student learning to program in and what these processes may mean in relation to a disciplinary aesthetics of the technology subject.

Methods: The study was part of a design-based study with the overall purpose to develop the teaching of programming in lower secondary school. Data was collected from a programming task designed and implemented in school-year 9 (the students were aged 15–16) in Technology in two lower secondary classes. In total, three teachers participated in the implementation. The students pair-programmed Lego robots that should perform specific movements, such as following a curved line. Each group recorded their coding process along with audio, resulting in videos that documented the gradual evolution of their programs. These videos, capturing the real-time programming and associated student and teacher conversations, serve as the data for this study. In order to analyze the role of aesthetics in classroom conversations a Practical Epistemology Analysis was applied.

Results: The results show that aesthetic judgments were important for orienting learning toward (1) the movement of the robot and (2) the ways to be in the programming activity. During the programming activity, the students expressed feelings of frustration but also joy and humor.

Discussion: The findings concur with previous research and contribute to further understanding the role of negative and positive aesthetic experiences in the teaching and learning of programming. The importance of the objects of aesthetic experience found in this study are discussed as part of a disciplinary aesthetic of programming.

Denna studie fokuserar hur praktiknära forskning kan bidra till att utveckla lärarprofessionens kunskapsbas; genom att undersöka vilka slags kunskapspro-dukter som genereras i didaktisk undervisningsutvecklande forskning där lärare och forskare arbetar tillsammans. Datamaterialet består av vetenskapligt publice-rade artiklar från forskningsmiljön Stockholm Teaching & Learning Studies (STLS). Genom en innehållsanalys har fyra (i−iv) kategorier av kunskapsprodukter identi-fierats: (i) Beskrivningar av kunnanden, (ii) Undervisningsdesign, (iii) Didaktiska exempeloch (iv) Metodologiska redskap. Beskrivningar av kunnandensynliggör vad som kännetecknar kunnanden inom olika ämnesområden. Undervisningsdesign preciserar relationer mellan undervisningens utformning och elevers lärande. Didaktiska exempel innefattar rika beskrivningar av undervisning och elevers lärande som grund för didaktisk reflektion. Metodologiska redskap fokuserar på att kombinera och pröva metoder för planering och analys av undervisning. Resultatet kan ses som en typologi över vilka olika slags kunskaper som praktiknära forskning kan bidra med.

Aesthetics concerns, on the one hand, people's feelings of pleasure and displeasure, and, on the other hand, the objects these feelings are directed to, that is, what people find beautiful or ugly (Wickman, 2006). Traditionally aesthetics and affect have been treated as separate from cognition and only rarely has it been studied how they are intertwined when learning a specific content (Wickman et al., 2021). However, recent situated and socio-culturally oriented research has begun to elucidate how aesthetics plays a key role for selection of content, what route learning takes in the classroom and for students' opportunities to develop an interest or taste for a specific school subject (e.g., Sinclair, 2006; Ainsworth and Bell, 2020; Wickman et al., 2021). This Research Topic compiles contributions from researchers examining these topics further.

I denna artikel diskuterar vi hur vi har använt resultat från ett mindre forskningsprojekt om programmering för att utveckla undervisningen inom teknikämnet. I forskningsprojektet såg vi att eleverna använde olika strategier när de programmerade en robot att följa en böjd linje, och att dessa strategier var olika framgångsrika för att lösa uppgiften. Resultatet från detta projekt samt våra erfarenheter av att undervisa programmering på grund- och gymnasieskolan användes för att ta fram och pröva ett undervisningsmaterial som stödjer elevers förståelse för programmering. Materialet adresserar inte enbart programmeringsspecifika begrepp, utan också för teknikämnet relevanta företeelser såsom återkopplingssystem, ändamålsenlighet och pröva och ompröva. Undervisningsmaterialet, som är grundat i den didaktiska modellen Organiserande syften, utgörs av en PowerPoint med korta lärarkommentarer.

During a relatively short period of time, programming has been implemented in the national curriculum of the compulsory school in Sweden. Since 2018, programming is a new content in the technology subject and the research field has discussed some of the challenges teachers and students, who generally have little experiences of programming, face when programming is introduced in teaching. In this study, we have explored what strategies lower secondary school students (ages 13–15) use when they are programming a robot to follow a curved line in technology education class. Data consists of screen recorded films when students are pair programming a robot. Student talks were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Practical Epistemological Analysis. The analysis revealed three different strategies that the students used when programming the robot: (1) sensor—follow the line, searching for a code that automatically would make the robot to follow the route, (2) sensor—wheels, using codes to create a feedback system between sensor and wheels, and (3) rotations—degrees–wheels, using the position of the robot to stepwise fine tune the movement of the wheels. In line with previous research, the students in our study spent much time discussing, testing, and debugging their code, and our findings contribute by showing how these discussions were aligned with the strategy used. Depending on the strategy, students actively looked for and tested codes affecting different aspects of the sensor-wheel system, such as for example sensor input, power, rotations or turning. Implications for teaching is discussed.

Studies carried out in numerous national contexts suggest that students from socio-economically impoverished backgrounds are associated with academic underachievement (Filmer & Pritchett, 1999). Some underprivileged students, however, manage to perform outstanding educational outcomes despite their adverse background. The dynamic process in which these students negotiate, adapt to, and cope with their circumstances is often referred to as ‘resilience’ (Howard et al., 1999).

During the 1990s, researchers started to explore resilience in the context of education, that is ‘academic resilience’. Accordingly, the notion of academic resilience is described as performing relatively well in school despite an adverse background (Alva, 1991; Wang et al., 1994). Several studies have found that academic resilience is associated with certain protective factors, both related to the individual and their environment (home, school, community), that modify or influence a person’s responses to adversities (Jowkar et al., 2014). Such factors are important to identify in order to understand how suitable support can be provided in order to create inclusive and equitable educational opportunities for all.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education research has a long tradition of engaging with inequalities, often related to the performance and participation of students from different genders, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds. A variety of conceptual tools have been applied to understand the uneven performance and participation in science, such as interest and taste (Anderhag et al., 2015), science capital (Archer et al., 2015) and science identity (Danielsson et al., 2023). There is also a rich literature that seeks to adapt science education in order to enhance the sense of belonging in the discipline for students from disadvantaged backgrounds (Barton & Tan, 2009). Such teaching interventions are often characterized by how they seek to bridge students’ life-worlds and science by, for example, eliciting and valuing students’ funds of knowledge. Other studies look at how minoritized students in STEM responded to challenges and develop their mathematical identities and pursue STEM career (Joseph et al., 2020). Consequently, STEM education research has been deeply invested in improving the teaching and learning for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Still, with a few notable exceptions (Ferguson & Martin‐Dunlo, 2021), this has not been conceptualized in terms of developing students’ academic resilience. We posit that an increased conversation between STEM education research seeking to improve the educational experience of disadvantaged students and research about academic resilience would be beneficial to both lines of research. Since the findings from the resilience research field are largely extracted from quantitative studies, the knowledge of how resilience is developed through the interplay between the individual and their environment is sparse.

The aim of this paper is to contribute a multifaceted exploration of an educational trajectory from childhood characterized by circumstances to doing a PhD in mathematics. The study is grounded in an interest of understanding how academic resilience be conceptualized in a way that allows for STEM-specific disciplinary aspects to be taken into account. More specifically, we ask:

- What resources (at individual/school/family/community level) were accessed by the student in order to allow for a successful educational trajectory in STEM?

We will present our preliminary results from a pilot case study of a scholar coming from Southeast Asia and now doing PhD in Mathematics at a Swedish university.

Laborativa moment är centrala inslag i grundskolans och gymnasiets naturvetenskapliga undervisning. Denna artikel presenterar några exempel på aktiviteter inom forskningsplattformen Stockholm Teaching & Learning Studies, STLS.

This paper introduces the notion of taste for teaching a subject, especially science, as a conceptual framework to analyse the aesthetics of teacher development as a lifelong process. We draw on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and John Dewey in order to account for how teachers distinguish admirable practices and, in doing so, distinguish themselves as inspiring professionals. In order to illustrate this framework, we report a narrative inquiry on the life story of Tomas, a white man nationally prized for his science teaching. This inquiry was inspired by sociological portraits recommended by Bernard Lahire. Results indicate how a practical disposition (as opposed to a theoretical one) played an important role in developing Tomas's individual taste for science teaching, producing a strong continuity between his early experiences as a masculine boy raised in a family of construction workers, on the one hand, and his later experiences as a biologist and a science teacher enacting inquiry-based activities. The significance of the findings for science education is discussed.

Tidigare studier, som framförallt har fokuserat på äldre barn, har visat att elever kan uttrycka en rad uppfattningar om cellen som avviker från gängse naturvetenskapliga beskrivningar. Projektet som denna studie är en del av syftar därför till att generera kunskap om hur undervisning kan stödja yngre barns (grundskolans årskurs 2) förståelse för cellen. Studien avser att besvara frågeställningarna (1) Vad uppmärksammaryngre barn när de arbetar med cellen i olika sammanhang? och (2) Hur använder yngre elever figurativa ord och naturvetenskapliga begrepp när de pratar om celler? En undervisningsserie omfattande ett tiotal lektioner planerades och genomfördes. Data i form av elevsamtal och digitala elevredovisningar från två lektionstillfällen samlades in och analyserades. Vid det ena tillfället redovisade eleverna egna 3D-modeller av cellen för varandra, som de hade tillverkat på lektionstid efter att ha sett en filmserie från Utbildningsradion om cellen. I det andra tillfället använde eleverna mikroskop för att studera och samtala om samt fotografera djur-, växt- och bakterieceller. Resultatet visar att elever framförallt uppmärksammade funktion när de arbetade med modellerna och form när de studerade riktiga celler. Studien visar på och diskuterar betydelsen av vardagliga, figurativa ord i elevers samtal om cellen.